HILLSBOROUGH — The Orange County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Thursday to examine alternatives to building a solid waste transfer station.

“The basic assumption that a transfer station is the best alternative may be too narrow,” Commissioner Barry Jacobs said Friday.

The county has been planning to build a transfer station, most recently in Bingham Township west of Carrboro. Garbage trucks would bring the county’s trash there to be loaded onto semi-trailers for shipment to an out-of-county landfill.

One alternative would be to have vendors collect and haul the county’s trash, said Bonnie Hauser, co-founder of the grassroots Orange County Voice.